Fashion runways, photoshoots, trade fairs, exhibitions and art installations have got something in common: they run for a very (or a relatively) short time, leaving behind a pile of waste in the form of sets and props.
Worried about this aspect, set designers Martina Bragadin and Margherita Crespi (a third member of the group, Benedetta Pomini, recently joined in) tried to find a solution and came up with Spazio Meta, a Milan-based start-up that recycles materials and sets from temporary events.
Located in the Bovisa area (address: via Don Minzoni 9), the name of this start-up comes from the Greek preposition μετά, meaning "after" or "beyond" (no relation with the new Facebook name, as Milan's Meta opened before Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that his company was rebranding as Meta).
Milan's Spazio Meta mainly works with art, design and fashion companies and creators: after an event, they get in touch with Meta that collects their waste materials, cleans them, divides them per type, cuts them (if necessary) in its own in-house workshop and then sells them to its customers, that go from students to professionals. Materials are sold by the kilo or per single piece, and most of them are in good conditions and they are very affordable as well (carpeting can be as cheap as 1 euro per Kg).
Bragadin and Crespi started looking into the possibilities offered by waste materials a few years ago when, after an edition of the local Salone del Mobile, they realised these events left behind a huge amount of trash. The Milanese initiative is directly inspired by similar organisations that in other European countries are working along the same lines, think for example about Paris-based Réserve des arts - pour une création circulaire et solidaire.
So far Spazio Meta has sold wood, textiles, glass, metals, plastic, plexiglass, resin, rubber and foam, but also something more exotic, such as pink sand and sky-blue or dark magenta faux fur (see also the picture in this post). The former came from a photographic set, the latter, may have been recognised by those fashion fans with a very discerning eye as the faux fur employed by architect Rem Koolhaas and his research studio AMO for the abstract set for Prada's Autumn/Winter 2021 menswear presentation.
Guess impenitent fashionistas may end up going to Spazio Meta to see if they can get a cheap piece of Prada, but Meta's founders hope that their venture will inspire people to create new artworks and designs moving not from an idea or a concept, but from already existing waste materials.
Comments